Laal Singh Chaddha: Despite Aamir Khan’s popularity, 1300 screens reduced after low footfall on opening day?

Mr. Perfectionist Aamir Khan is back with a movie after four years. The film has been waiting for release since two years itself. Plus this movie is the Indian adaptation of Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump. What could go wrong, right? Wrong.

Laal Singh Chaddha was not accepted by the viewers even before the film’s release. #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha succeeded since the film did not have the best Box Office openings despite ticking all boxes and that has impacted in the screens since 1300 screens have reportedly been cancelled due to low footfalls.

A trade source told Bollywood Hungama that while Aamir’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan had 10,000 screens initially, a maximum of 10-12 people came per show.

While Aamir’s movies would usually open to Rs. 100 crores, this one simply made Rs. 20 crores on day one – August 11. What’s surprising is that even the Raksha Bandhan holiday did not work in favour of this movie.

Laal Singh Chaddha is not being accepted by the mass audiences. On the other hand, nobody is going to multiplexes to watch Raksha Bandhan.

Reportedly, both the movies’ Friday morning shows were cancelled. This hints that the theatre-going audiences might be back at home. Of course, the rising COVID-19 cases do not help the cause of actually going to theatres to watch a film.

It is now only a matter of time before we see whether the theatres will remain open or films will take the direct-to-OTT route once again. If that happens again, will the Khans (Aamir and SRK) also release their films on OTT or wait for theatres to open again?